CEO’s ‘Highly effective’ Enterprise Change Results in 8-Determine Income

“It is all the time been my dream to be a CEO of a trend model,” Ginny Seymour, CEO of latest girls’s trend model Aligne, tells Entrepreneur.

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Aligne. CEO Ginny Seymour.}

A trend trade veteran who began her profession as a up to date purchaser at Saks Fifth Avenue, Seymour had a chance to appreciate that aim with Aligne, initially based by Dalbir Bains as a wholesale girls’s trend model in London in 2020.

Seymour envisioned a brand new period for Aligne — the model might fill a white area she noticed in fashionable girls’s clothes: the necessity for design-led, wearable items at an accessible value level, delivered with an omnichannel method.

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Seymour got down to make it occur, basically “refounding” the corporate. She joined the enterprise as managing director in 2022, relaunched Aligne below her imaginative and prescient in 2023 and was formally named CEO in 2024.

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Aligne}

“I felt companions [had to be] an enormous a part of the story.”

Throughout her first a number of years as CEO, Seymour centered on Aligne’s group constructing on-line and “design handwriting,” then branched out from a direct-to-consumer technique to an omnichannel method with U.S. retail companions.

In truth, regardless of being a London-founded model, Aligne sees a bigger a part of its enterprise unfolding within the U.S., Seymour says.

The CEO even just lately relocated from London to New York to assist the U.S. workplace and staff because the model continues its growth.

“ We’re nonetheless based mostly within the UK, so I journey backwards and forwards,” Seymour says. “London to me is our inventive hub; it is a part of our DNA being a British model. That is tremendous vital to me and one thing we do not wish to lose. So we’re very a lot creatively pushed out of London, however commercially pushed out of the U.S.”

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Aligne}

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As a nonetheless comparatively younger British model, Aligne beneficial properties validation with a U.S. viewers by means of retailers which have loyal buyer bases.

“In  the UK, it is simpler to be direct-to-consumer solely as a result of the UK is way smaller and extra attainable,” Seymour says. “However within the U.S., to resonate as the following up to date model that folks needs to be taking a look at, I felt companions [had to be] an enormous a part of the story.”

Aligne just lately launched with Nordstrom, a retailer Seymour says she’d all the time hoped to accomplice with sooner or later, after the corporate direct-messaged her to precise its curiosity within the model. Aligne can be obtainable at Anthropologie.

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Aligne}

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“There’s much less visibility [into] the analytics and who your buyer is. You must actually pay attention.”

Regardless of the long-term aim to develop in retail, Seymour first prioritized understanding Aligne as a model and its relationship to prospects earlier than tackling these partnerships, appreciating how vital that technique is for sustainable success.

Whether or not you are refounding a enterprise that already exists or beginning one from scratch, figuring out who your buyer is — and shortly — will make or break its progress.  ”And that is simpler stated than accomplished,” the CEO notes. “There are such a lot of components. With each iOS replace, there’s much less visibility [into] the analytics and who your buyer is. You must actually pay attention.”

Aligne’s goal prospects are “assured, working” girls, and acknowledging what these customers wished in a clothes line helped information the model’s design shift and the route of its assortment, Seymour says.

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Dialing into that buyer base is paying off. Aligne ended its fiscal yr in July 2025 with 56% year-over-year income progress and income approaching eight figures.

Most of Aligne’s items are priced between $100 and $300. Though Seymour acknowledges why some manufacturers evolve into the “premium up to date” area amid rising prices and tariff challenges, she says the corporate is dedicated to its accessible value level.

^{Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Aligne}

“I shortly needed to be taught the place I did not wish to lean and the way to verify to get the assist.”

Being a CEO is loads tougher than Seymour thought it could be when she was 20 years outdated, she admits. However she appreciates how the job has allowed her to attract on her expertise as a purchaser, which demanded a “stability of artwork and science” very like the chief position does.

“[There might be a] week that I am so inventive and designing the idea and the road, and there is different days the place I am undoubtedly leaning into the science,” Seymour says. “However I shortly needed to be taught the place I did not wish to lean and the way to verify to get the assist in these areas as a result of a CEO wears so many hats.”

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One of many largest classes Seymour’s discovered throughout her tenure as CEO thus far is the worth in listening to her instincts — even when it is tough. Over the primary couple of months of the corporate’s refounding, Seymour generally hesitated to say what she wished, then did not get the outcomes that she desired.

“Three months in, I had this second the place I introduced the staff collectively and was a lot clearer about what I wished,” Seymour says. “That introduced them extra on the journey with me, and it solidified us as a staff and our values. If in case you have an thought and also you’re constructing your personal enterprise, trusting your intestine and never being scared to say it’s highly effective.”